Per OHSA regulations, all mobile mining equipment must be equipped with continuously operating strobe lights, that allow workers to see parked vehicles in dark areas. Examples of mobile mining equipment include mining work vehicles such as locomotives, jeeps, loaders, tractors, carrier vehicles, Minecat's, etc. Each mine has numerous machines that may or may not be in production at all times. For example, at Stobie there may be approximately 150 different pieces of equipment, and at Colemon alone they have 50 jeeps and many different equipment that are not in constant use with the strobe light on.
The current strobe design discharges the main battery of the equipment as it is parked. Over an extended period, the battery may fully discharge, leaving the equipment inoperable. The strobe light kills the battery as it operates under the battery power of the machine. If the machine is not being used due to repairs or due to it being parked the strobe light remains on regardless of surrounding risks. The light remains on in a surrounding that has no traffic or workers. At times it is running 24 hrs a day for numerous days at a time off the battery of the machine. When the battery runs down, the battery on any given machine might need to be replaced at a cost ranging from 100-200 dollars per battery plus labor cost anywhere ranging from 1-3 hrs of labor. The machine is down at that time resulting in loss of production as well as a intermittent risk to safety. The machines in question can try a boost of the battery but may not recover. Lastly when repairing a machine in a shop it needs to be parked in a drift area. The machine might need to be sifting there for a few days thus causing the battery to die and other equipment behind to stop producing as a result due to traffic. Operators must then boost the unit or replace the unit taking about 2-3 hours of maintenance time, plus lost time of miners.